The proportion of adults who are currently in some form of education or training or have been over the last 36 months is at its highest level for 10 years due to the difficult economic climate.
According to a UK-wide survey of 4,964 adults undertaken by TNS Omnibus and sponsored by the Local Government Association on behalf of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), the number of adults who are currently involved in learning or have been recently has increased by 4% to 43% this year.
The overall numbers of those planning to study has likewise jumped to 47% in 2010, the highest figure for 20 years – while the proportion of those indicating that they are very unlikely to get involved over the next three years fell by the same amount.
Alan Tuckett, NIACE’s chief executive, said: “This survey shows something of a sea change in adults’ engagement in learning. After years in which the numbers in learning fell overall, and the gulf between the learning rich and the learning poor widened dramatically, there has been a major shift – not only in the proportion of adults who are engaged in learning, but also in adults’ expectations of taking part in the near future.”
The report entitled ‘A Change for the Better’ indicated that, for the first time, there had been a “statistically significant” improvement in the number of adults from social class ‘DE’ who were participating in education or training. This group is the poorest in society and comprise the unemployed, semi- and unskilled people and retirees.
For the last 20 years, there has been little shift in participation levels here. This year, however, the figures jumped 6% to 30%.
People in the ‘AB’ demographic continue to be the most likely to engage in learning, with 56% doing so at the moment or having done so in the last three years – a rise of between 3-4%. The same applies to 37% of the ‘C2’ category.
Some three in five full-time workers plan to get involved in some form of education or training, up 13% on 2009, while 58% of part-time workers intend to do likewise, up 9%. Just over two thirds of job seekers also expect to study, however, a jump of 17 percentage points.
But it is women who remain the keenest learners, with 23% currently involved in some kind of activity and 44% who have been recently. The figures for men are lower at 20% and 41% respectively.
Tuckett said: “This year’s increases can only be the beginning. If those who benefit least from their initial education are to get a fair share of the opportunities that training and wider learning can bring, this level of increase will need to be emulated in 2011.”
While it will be “challenging” to maintain such increases in participation when public finances are under so much pressure, things are moving in the right direction, although they still have “some way to go”, he added.
